by It’s Sunday morning, February 16, 2020. What am I doing? I’m sitting on the couch of a cheap hotel in Pleasanton. The whole family is still asleep, exhausted from yesterday and from the crazy week we’re just finishing. I’m finally becoming aware of what’s happening to us. And yet, it’s exactly what we wanted.
At the beginning of the week, we were still a normal family.
On Thursday, the painter came and pressure-washed the exterior of the house in preparation for painting. I took Thursday and Friday off. Inside, that’s when things really kicked into high gear. I posted ads for our garage sale on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, Nextdoor, Québécois en Californie. I got calls, texts, spam, scams—but it worked really well…!
On Friday, the new countertops were installed to “make things look nice” and help sell the house. We won’t even get to enjoy them. Friday evening, I was putting up garage sale signs on various poles around the neighborhood.
We sold most of our large items. We no longer have a TV. S. no longer has a bike. We no longer have chairs to eat on. The freezer is empty—and sold. Our queen bed is sold. The kids’ beds are dismantled. My work desk no longer exists. Our couch—gone. Many of N.’s toys were given away, sold, or thrown out. I answered hundreds of messages.
Friends came to help—thank goodness—because the amount of work was unbelievable. They helped sell items, throw away furniture, take furniture apart, and transport purchases. Thank you all again a thousand times over!!
At the end of the day, we packed the car with the kids and went to a hotel ten minutes from home. That’s when it really hit us: we don’t really have a home anymore. The house is still there, but we no longer live in it. The transition is hard, but it’s what we wanted—to look for a better place to live. We kept the kids’ most important toys. And of course, we still have our computers.
The hardest part: the goodbyes.
- Goodbye to the house
- Goodbye to Poochy (the dog)
- Goodbye to Zombie and Zazou (the cats)
- The kids saying goodbye to their grandparents
- Goodbye to the park and the neighborhood we lived in, and to all the friends we made in our little corner of California
It’s funny—while looking for our planning lists and all our different to-do lists, I stumbled upon our to-do list from five years ago, when we left Quebec. It just goes to show: the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Back then, leaving Quebec was easier. We were moving from one job to another, and from one house to another. We were selling, leaving—but we knew exactly where we were going.
This time, it’s different. We know what we’re leaving behind. We have a rough idea of the places we’ll visit. But we don’t know where we’ll end up living. Once the house is sold, we’ll technically be homeless.
There’s still a lot to do. I’m continuing to work for Twitch. Isabelle is continuing to teach the kids at home—from hotels and Airbnbs. The house still needs to be cleaned; outlets replaced; the countertop backsplash repaired; the yard cleaned; items thrown out; the sink reinstalled; painting done; new carpets; photography; staging; a plumber… We need to go back to the storage unit to drop off our last belongings. We need to sell the house remotely.
We also have to plan the trip—we’ve only planned the first three weeks in the U.S. so far. We’ll keep going and adjust the route. We’ll start planning Europe during the U.S. road trip, and then continue from there.
This is the hardest part: the transition. Once we’re truly on the road, we’ll be able to start looking forward. What we want. What we hope for. Where to go. What to discover. Which neighborhood we might want to live in.
I’ll leave it here—the day is starting. It’s breakfast time, and we have to head back to the house for the second part of the garage sale. There are fewer items, so it should go more smoothly. Until next time!
